René Descartes
Discourse on the Method: what to read next?
Books close in genre, era, author or reading level, to read in bilingual editions.
PlatoSymposiumAt a banquet in Athens, the physician Eryximachus invites each guest, including the philosopher Socrates, to speak in turn about the nature of love and desire. Each one offers his own view, revealing different facets of this complex feeling. Through these exchanges, a deep…Same genre
Arthur MachenThe Great God PanDr Raymond operates on the brain of a young girl, Mary, so that she may see the hidden world behind our own. Years later, a little girl named Helen seems to carry within her a strange and disturbing presence. As time goes by, troubling events and unexplained tragedies occur…Same genre
Osamu DazaiNo Longer HumanThree notebooks, found with a few photographs, tell the life of Ōba Yōzō from childhood on. Convinced early that he understands nothing of other people, he plays the clown so that no one will guess his fear, and takes no rest from the act. As a student in Tokyo he drifts into…Same genre
Virginia WoolfMrs DallowayClarissa Dalloway, a woman of London high society, prepares a party while revisiting her memories and life choices. Over the course of the day, her thoughts intertwine with those of other characters, including Septimus, a former soldier scarred by the war. Their parallel yet…Same genre
James JoycePortrait of the ArtistStephen, a sensitive and ambitious young man, grows up in an Ireland marked by religion and social conventions. Very early, he feels out of step with his environment and develops intense reflections on art, faith, and identity. His path is punctuated by doubts, revolts, and…Same genre
Saint AugustineConfessionsAugustine, in search of truth, retraces his path from a youth marked by doubt and excess to his spiritual conversion. He explores his mistakes, questions, and the influences that shaped his thought. Through this introspection, he seeks to understand the nature of good, evil,…Same genre
Fyodor DostoevskyCrime and PunishmentRaskolnikov, a poor student in Saint Petersburg, believes that certain men can transgress moral laws to achieve great things. He commits a crime he deems justified but is quickly consumed by intense inner turmoil. Between guilt, fear, and pride, his mind wavers as those around…Same genre
Henry ThoreauWaldenThoreau, seeking simplicity, settles alone near Walden Pond to live in self-sufficiency. He observes nature, reduces his needs to the bare essentials, and reflects on modern society. Through his experience, he questions work, consumption, and dominant values. This text blends…Same genre
LaoziTao Te ChingAttributed to Laozi, this work of Chinese wisdom gathers eighty-one short chapters, somewhere between maxim and poem. It turns on the Tao, the way that can be neither named nor grasped, and on the virtue that follows for those who keep to it. It praises water, emptiness and…Same genre
Fyodor DostoevskyThe Brothers KaramazovFyodor Karamazov, a debauched father, is set against his eldest son Dmitri over an inheritance and the same woman. Around them Ivan, tormented by the problem of evil, and Alyosha, a novice at the monastery, take opposite paths, while the servant Smerdyakov looks on. When the…Same genre
Friedrich NietzscheBeyond Good and EvilIn nine sections of aphorisms, Nietzsche attacks the prejudices of philosophers and their claim to a disinterested truth. He examines where moral values come from, distinguishes a master morality from a slave morality, and questions the religious certainties of his time. His…Same genre
Franz KafkaThe TrialOne morning Josef K., a senior clerk at a bank, is arrested in his lodgings by two warders who tell him nothing of the charge and leave him free to go to work. The case proceeds without being explained to him, in the attic of a suburban tenement where a court sits among piles…Same genre